


kindred promises

by AerisaHale (KarasuKyra)



Category: The Shannara Chronicles (TV)
Genre: F/F, Reincarnation, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 06:57:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6069616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarasuKyra/pseuds/AerisaHale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eretria dreams of things that never happened and things that could never be. Amberle reminds her that anything is possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kindred promises

She didn’t know where she was, although she’d recognize those eyes, that face, that smile anywhere. Amberle was wearing unfamiliar clothes and playing with a gadget that looked like it came from before the great war. So did her clothes, come to think of it. She’d seen photos in old papers that survived destruction and time.

Looking down at herself, Eretria saw that she was wearing the same odd clothing. She had jewelry on her hands and tattoos going up her arms. It was some language she didn’t know. Maybe she did once.

Her surroundings were equally unfamiliar. She’d seen the skeletons of the machines surrounding her, but never had she seen them with so much life and color! Knowing what they were capable of and seeing them were completely beyond her wildest dreams. Moving pictures were everywhere, signs were lit up, advertising what was within the different shops.

Completing a circle, her gaze landed back on Amberle. Or not-Amberle with her round, human ears. The other girl must have noticed that something was off. She sent Eretria a puzzled look. “What’s wrong, Sarah?”

“Sarah?” Eretria asked, bewildered.

Now Amberle smirked. “Your name? Are you trying to fuck with me?”

Eretria was taken aback by the harsh language. The princess she knew would never have used it, even in an informal setting.

“Is this because I forgot to kiss you before work this morning? I was so late. After dinner last night, I was so wiped I forgot to set the alarm. But, it’s not too late to make up for lost time.”

Before Eretria could process what was happening, she was kissing Amberle, something that had only happened within the privacy of her own mind, and the reality was a far cry better than anything her imagination could have supplied her with. Amberle pulled back. “Babe, seriously, what’s wrong?”

As Eretria tried to formulate a response, the world around her started to melt, twist, and shift, and suddenly she was in familiar surroundings. A lush, green forest laid before her, alive with the music of insects, birds, and animals. There was a tent before her with the Seal of Elessedil.

“Amberle!” Eretria called out as she pushed the tent flap aside, revealing more startlingly familiar images she’d never seen before.

The princess was sitting at a table covered in maps and movements. They looked like war plans. She must be in her mid-thirties, but still so-very-clearly Amberle Elessedil. Her belly was swollen with child, and there was a hardness in her eyes that spoke of the life she’d lived to reach this point.

Faster than any pregnant woman should be able to move, Amberle had a rapier to her throat and steel in her eyes. “What are you doing here, changling?”

Eretria held her hands up in what she hoped was a show of surrender. “Amberle, it’s me. I am no changling.”

Amberle didn’t move, her expression didn’t change. “Eretria, my love, died in my arms 15 years ago. You should slit the throat of whoever supplied your information.”

Before Eretria could reply, the blade sank into her throat and she couldn’t breath as blood filled her lungs and she choked. She fell to the ground, blood pooling in her, around her, and her world turned dark.

Her eyes flew open with a gurgling gasp, her hand flying to her throat as she backed as far away from her current position as she could until she hit something. She looked wildly around, acting on instinct when someone grabbed her shoulder. She flipped them and pressed her knee into their chest before she realized it was Amberle, again.

This Amberle was familiar, dressed in her normal garb, hair pulled back, elven ears on display. She quickly stood, offering a hand and an apologetic look. She was relieved when the Elven Princess took it, rising to her feet again.

“What’s gotten into you?” Amberle asked, rubbing at her chest and glaring balefully.

“Nothing.” Eretria was quick to hide her problems, still confused by what must have been dreams.

“Nothing at all, would have you put a knee in my chest from a dead sleep?” Amberle was clearly skeptical and insatiable when her curiosity was piqued.

“I had some dreams.”

“If you’re dreaming of me, you could at least tell me if I’m a good kisser,” the princess teased.

It hit too close to home for Eretria and she couldn’t think of a reply fast enough. She knew she was caught when Amberle’s eyes widened.

“It wasn’t like that! Well, it was, but it wasn’t.”

“Tell me,” Amberle said softly and all the teasing was gone from her voice.

So Eretria told her, told her of the weird surroundings, kissing Amberle, and finally being murdered by her.

Amberle looked perturbed, so Eretria offered, “I can sleep on opposite sides of the fire from you and I promise I’m not going to grope you.”

“That’s not what I’m–I meant I’ve–I’ve had the same dreams.” Amberle looks at the ground, refusing to meet Eretria’s gaze. “And I’ve–I mean, I’ve only read it in the old tome’s kept in the back of the library–I’ve read that two people who dream the same dreams, who experience lives they’ve never lived, are soulmates, destined to be reincarnated together, again and again.”

Eretria snorts. She can’t help herself. “You really believe that?”

Now Amberle looks up and meets Eretria’s gaze, and the rover hadn’t realized quite how close they were until now. “I believe it as steadfastly as I believe demons walk this earth and you stand before me. My people are raised with magic in a way yours rarely are.”

“And what does it mean–soulmates?”

“We are bound to one another in this life and the next, in all our lives to come.”

Eretria swallows thickly before she asks the next words, knowing she can’t take them back. “And what does this mean for us?”

The princess drinks in the sight of the rover before her, lets her knuckles brush her cheek. “We’ll just have to see.”


End file.
